Rats

A fresh and innovative ensemble offering a new and exciting mixture of modern jazz and Israeli music.
The members of the ensemble, in spite of their young age, are among the top Israeli Jazz musicians and perform regularly in concert halls and festivals at home and abroad. They all live, rehearse and perform between two cities, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. These two Israeli cities are the main focus for Israeli arts today- the swing between the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary and between the static and the dynamic.
The music played by Rats, composed entirely by the members of the ensemble, is deeply influenced by this encounter of two spheres and derived from this “freedom in structure”, as they call it, that is created by fusing influences of jazz, including free jazz, into Israeli music and life.

Rats’ début album, ‘Afternoon High’, was released January 2007. Following the release party, critic Ben Shalev (Ha’aretz) wrote: “although they have the name of a punk band, their music is characterized by a profound melodic concept, rhythmic freedom and a unique personality... Music that is searching, wondering and stretching the borders, just like young musicians should be”.